Translation and Markedness

Abstract

Translation is a task which involves different aspects of linguistics. Producing equivalent degree of markedness is one of linguistic competences which should be owned by the translators. This ability has a contribution in maintaining the thematic structure and the propositional meaning through the translation process. The present study is a descriptive analytical corpus-based aimed to analyze (1) the translation of English marked structures, those are passive, it-cleft, existential and pseudo-cleft into Indonesian, and (2) the ways presenting the thematic structures in the target language. The development of English marked sentences involves thematization process, therefore analyzing the ways in translating these marked sentences and transferring the thematic structures to their Indonesian counterparts are interesting to be conducted. The corpus found in an English book entitled The Intelligent Investor and its Indonesian translation. The corpus is a parallel data consists of 191 marked English sentences and their Indonesian translations. Comparative analysis conducted to the data showed that 78.5% of the marked English sentences were translated into marked sentences in Indonesian. Translating the marked English sentences into Indonesian marked sentences supported the process of preserving the information.